Fire-escape.



No. 771,521. PATENTED OCT. 4, 1904. E. ZIBELL.

FIRE ESCAPE.

APPLIOATION FILED MAY 20, 1904.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

N0 MODEL.

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Witnesses No. 771,521. PATENTED 00124, 1904.

' E. ZIBELL. v

PIRE ESCAPE. l APPLIGATION FILED MAY 20, 1904.

NO MODEL. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

3 7? Y Z i 2z g5 l l/// y UNITED STATES Patented October 4, 1904.

EMIL ZIBELL, OF WABASSO, MINNESOTA.

FIRE-ESCAPE.`

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 771,521, dated October4, 1904.

Application led May 20, 1904:. Serial Nor/208,855.

To all wir/077@ ifm/Ly concern:

. Be it known that I, EMIL ZIBELL, a citizen of the United States,residing at Wabasso, in the county of Redwood and State ofMinnesota,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fire-Escapes; and Ido hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and eXactdescription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in theart to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to life-saving appliances, and more particularly tothat variety thereof commonly designated a fire-escape; and it consistsof certain novel features of combination and construction of parts, thepreferred form whereof will be hereinafter clearly set forth, andpointed out in the claim.

The prime object of my invention, among others, is to provide a safetyappliance of the character specied by which any number of persons or anyreasonable amount of weight may be safely and readily lowered to a pointof safety.

A further object of my invention is to provide reliably-efiicient meansfor placing the apparatus under the control of the operator or personsusing it, whereby it may be readily checked at any desired point in thedescent-` as, for instance, opposite a lower window of a building,whereby a person from any of the lower windows may be easily securedandcarried to a point of safety with those who have placed themselvesupon the lire-escape from points higher up on Other objects andadvantages will 4be hereinafter made clearly apparent, considered inconnection with the accompanying drawings, which are made a part of thisapplication, and in which- Figure 1 shows a side elevation of my safetyappliance complete ready for use.` Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof.Fig. 3 isasectional View taken on line 3 3 of Fig. 1 and lookingdownward thereon. Fig. 4L is a perspective detail view showing the meansof constructing the levers designed for the control of the winding-drum.

The various details and cooperating accessories of my invention will forconvenience be designated by numerals, the same numeral the building.

' upward (No model.)

applying to asimilar part ,throughout the several views, and referringto the numerals on the drawings 1, 2, and 3 indicate the standards oruprights comprising part of the framework, said standards beingoperatively connected together by suitable cross-bars 4 and by the endsections 5, whereby a strong and Vrigid frame will be produced, whichframework is deslgned to be located at or near the top of a building tobe protected by my safety appliance. It will be understood that theframeworlgliowever, may be constructed in any desired way, and upon saidframework I secure in suitable bearings the winding or storage drum 6,upon which is disposed the preferably steel cable 7, and it will beobserved that as the cable 7 leaves the drum it is rst passed over theidler-pulley 8 and thence downward over the idler 9 and thence over theidler-pulley 10, all of said pulleys being properly secured in position,

the pulley 9 being rotatably mounted between the brake-levers 11 and 12,as fully shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

It will be seen that the inner ends of the brake-levers 11 and 12 arepivotally mounted .upon the transversely-disposed rod 13, properlymounted in the framework above described, while the free ends of saidlevers are provided withthe bail or pivoted member 14, adapted to beconnected to the controlling rope or cable 15, also preferably formed ofnon-combustible material, as a wire rope of proper size. Thebrake-levers 11 and 12 are somewhat angular in form, as shown in Fig. 1,and at the angle thus provided I locate a brake-shoe or friction-plate16, adapted to cooperate with the friction-wheel 17 upon the drum-shaft18, and it is therefore obvious that when said by the cable 15, whichpasses over the pulley 19, the storage or winding drum will be checkedor locked against rotation, according to the strength of the pull placedupon said cable.

I also provide the differentiating windingdrum 20, having asuitableshaft 21 located in bearings provided in the cross-bars 22 of theframework secured to the upper ends of the standards 1 and 2. Upon theshaft 21 I brake-levers are raised upward IOO secure the sprocket 23,which cooperates with the sprocket chain E24, the latter passing aroundthe sprocket-wheel 25, secured to the shaft Q6. I also secure to theshaft 26 the sprocket-wheel 27, having the sprocket-chain 28, whichpasses around the sprocket-wheel 29 upon the drum-shaft 18. The drum 20carries the cable 30, to the lower end of which I secure a weight 31,and it is obvious that when the storage-drum G is unwound the eable 30will be wound upon the drum 20. The object, therefore, of the weight 31is to rewind the storage-drum after the load has been removed from theload-carrying cable 7, it being understood that any suitable applianceis to be attached to the end of said loadcarrying cable-as a basket,ring, or the likewhereby a person or persons may be readily accommodatedand safely carried to the ground. Obviously when a person or a number ofpersons have entered the carrying-basket (not shown) attached to the endof the load-carrying cable 7 and one of said persons has grasped thecontrolling-cable 15 said load may be slowly or rapidly lowered,according to the strain placed upon the cable 15, and that while thestorage-drum 6 is being unwound incident to the lowering of the load andthe unwinding of the carrying-cable 7 the diiferentiating-drum 2O willbe so rotated as to wind up the cable 30 and incidentally raise thecompensating weight 81, so that when the persons shall have reached theground or a point of safety and released the load-carrying cable 7 saidweight will rewind the load-carrying cable upon the storage-drum 6, andthereby restore the end of said load-carrying cable to its initial ornormal position at the top of the building, ready for the accommodationof-another person or number of persons.

Inasmueh as any suitable form of receptacle---as a basket, wire cage, ora plurality of rings--may be provided for the end of the load-carryingcable, I deem it unnecessary for the purpose of this application toillustrate any special form of appliance, desiring to call particularattention to the construction and combination of parts involved in theproduction of my safety appliance.

Inasmuch as the load-carrying cable7 passes around the pulley 9,rotatably carried between the ends of the brake-levers 11 and 12, itfollows that the heavier the load placed upon the load-carrying cablethe more firmly will the brake-shoe 16 be brought to bear upon thefriction-wheel 17, insuring that the storage-drum can only be slowlyunwound and that the person or persons will be carried with reasonablethough entirely safe speed to the ground. If, however, the operatordesires to stop at any of the lower windows, as for the purpose ofreceiving an additional person, all that is necessary is to pulldownward upon the controlling-cable 15, which will bring thebrake-levers sharply upward and instantly lock further rotation of thestorage or winding drum 6, and thereby incidentally check furtherdownward movement of the carryingbasket. (N ot shown.) It is furtherobvious that when it is desired to again move downward all that isrequired from the operator is to release his downward pull upon thecontrolling-cable 15, when the unwinding of the drum 6 will again begin.

The various parts of' my invention may be very cheaply and expeditiouslymanufactured of any preferred material and any desired size to meet allrequirements placed upon such an appliance, and while I have describedthe preferred combination and construction of parts I desire tocomprehend in this application all substantial substitutes andequivalents that may be considered as falling fairly within the scopeand purview of my invention.

Believing that the construction, advantages, and manner of using myinvention have thus been made clearly apparent, further reference to thedetails is deemed unnecessary.

Vr'hat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The herein-described fire-escape or safety appliance for buildings, andcomprising a suitable framework; a winding or storage drum mounted insaid framework; a cable normally wound upon said drum; a brake lever orlevers cooperating with said drum and having the idler-pulley 9 mountedon the free ends thereof; cooperating pulleys 8 and 10 adapted, inconnectionwith said pulley 9, to cooperate with the load-carrying cable7 from said winding-drum; a controlling-cable 15 operatively connectedto said brake-levers and -an auxiliary winding-drum 2O operativelymounted in the framework and connected with the main winding-drum 6; acable 3() earried by said auxiliary winding-drum; a weight carried bysaid cable on the auxiliary drum whereby when the main or storage drum 6is unwound the cable 30 will be wound on the auxiliary drum and therebyelevate said weight, which latter will cause the rewinding of thestorage-drum when the load upon the carrying-cable is removed allcombined substantiall y as specified and for the purpose set forth. Intestimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

EMIL ZIBELL.

Witnesses:

EMIL Howe, FRANK IIAGnRT,'Jr.

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